Carl Willis

Feeling Worthy

feeling worthy

Hey, I hope you’re having a great day today here on Tuesday. It’s still Tuesday morning here in Wichita, and so just kind of rocking and rolling through my day this morning. One of the things that I want to get into today is this idea of feeling . Many Christians wrestle with the idea of being able to do bigger things for the kingdom of God because they don’t feel . They feel disqualified, they feel like somehow they have forfeited God’s ability to use them in a powerful and dynamic way. But the reality is God’s dream for you is much bigger than you are. In some respects, we should all feel a bit unworthy when we see just how large the call is, and realize our true and utter dependence upon Him. Our inability in our own strength, in our own creativity, in our own resources to bring that dream to fruition. However, what I want to tackle is more of this idea of because we don’t really understand the fullness of God’s grace.

In Zechariah 3, Zechariah sees a vision that to me is one of the most profound visions in Scripture. In that vision, he sees the throne room of heaven, and Joshua, the High Priestess standing there, his priestly garments are soiled and defiled. In fact, if you study the original language of that text, the idea being conveyed is that his garments are actually covered in excrement. And so there he is standing there, guilty as charged, stained, unholy, unrighteous. In this account, there are two other people present; One being the devil, who it says was there to accuse Joshua the high priest. And the other being the Angel of the Lord. When you study Scripture, what you find is in the Old Testament when the Angel of the Lord is seen, that is Jesus prior to becoming a man walking on the face of the earth. In this context, the devil was there to point his finger at Joshua and say, “Look. Look at your priest, look at what he’s done. Look how defiled he is.”

But what happens in this encounter, is the Angel of the Lord calls for brand new garments to be placed upon Joshua, the high priest. His soil defiled, excrement covered robes to be removed, and brand new garments of white, brand new holy and pure garments to be placed upon him. In this vision, Zechariah calls out, “Wait, put his turban on him as well.” His turban was the sign of his authority in the kingdom of God, it was the sign of his role in the kingdom of God. The turban is placed upon his head, and the Angel of the Lord stands there and gives approval. He doesn’t stop, and He doesn’t say, “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Now he’s got new garments on, but he doesn’t get to serve again.” The Angel of the Lord gives validation to those new garments, He gives validation to the renewal of the call upon Joshua’s life.

This is the thing I want you to grab hold of today. It doesn’t matter what mistakes, and errors, and things you’ve done in your past, God has a redemptive plan for you. His call on your life is not negated simply because you’ve made those choices in the past. In fact, He stands ready to redeem you, and to restore you. That really is what the good news of Scripture is all about. We come from a broken relationship, and God through His great love expressed by putting Jesus on the cross brings us into that , into that restoration, and then that releasing … excuse me … into the call that God has for us